By Tess Dawson
Many people aren’t as well acquainted with the Canaanite pantheon as with other pantheons. My guess is that this is because biblical lore and religions did a great job stamping out their polytheistic roots and succeeded better with Canaanite religion than for other ancient religions. Although scholars knew a little of Canaanite religion for a long time, primary documents finally became available with the archaeological find of the city of Ugarit (modern-day Ras Shamra in Syria) in 1928. With this discovery scholars finally were able to learn a great deal more about Canaanite deities, and from texts written by the people who worshiped them, instead of from biblical ranters. Please allow me to introduce you to my deities…
The word Iluma, or ʻilūma, comes from the Canaanite language of Ugaritic and means “gods” and refers to the Canaanite pantheon. Sometimes the word is lengthened to ʻilahūma, and it is from this variation that one of the Hebrew names for “god” comes from: Elohīm. The iluma, or pukhru ilima (puḫru ilīma, Assembly of Gods) meets atop the legemdary Mount Lalu, sometimes called Lel. Mount Tzapunu (Ṣapunu), Ba’lu Haddi’s holy mountain, known as Mount Casius or Jebel al-Aqra’a in Lebanon is as important to the Canaanites in the city of Ugarit as Mount Olympus is to the Greeks. In no particular order below are the Iluma, the Canaanite gods and goddesses:
What’s been said…